At Any Length
by myfailsafe
Summary: AU. Facing life and death, Sasuke shows Naruto how far he is willing to go to protect him. SasuNaru
1. In the Name of the Law

Chapter One: In the Name of the Law

Author's Notes (Which are IMPORTANT): Read the first chapter before going off the deep end, stoning me, and telling me I'm the worst person in the fucking world, and not even giving this a shot. Try it. Give it a test spin. Take it around the block – the keys are shiny and brand new.  
I went back to the dark tones… damn.

Also: For my dear friend (and muse's birthday), I figured I'd post this. It's going to be short, so don't get all pissy and bitchy. She is a fan of angst and this chapter calls for that. So, my dear Jen-Jen, Happy Birthday dear.

Warning/Disclaimer: Pleased be warned, SPOILER: fake character death. So, angst, if you can't stomach it, fuck off. Boys in love with each other – that too. I don't own anything mentioned in this fiction and I'm not making money.

Chapter One: In the Name of the Law

* * *

I couldn't believe this was happening.

It had to be a dream. It had to be a really – _really_ – bad nightmare. But it was real. I was at the funeral home, sitting there, and I was staring at _his_ coffin. He was pale before, but it was something he could carry with grace and sophistication. Now he looked like a doll, broken and – I choked – lifeless. His hair wasn't like it usually was, it was flat against his face and it took all my will power not to fix it to the way he liked it so he looked more like himself. I so desperately wanted him to look more like himself.

The place was packed, I somehow managed to be in the reserved row only for family, but last time I checked Uchiha and Uzumaki were nowhere in the same league.

I chanced a glace behind me while people still managed to file in so I didn't have to look at him, so I could still manage time to pretend like it wasn't real. I never knew Sasuke made such an impact, but I had a feeling it was simply his last name and not him. For some reason, I had a sudden urge to jump up and tell them all to get the hell out.

They wanted a chance to see one of the last Uchiha's leave. It wasn't to pay their respects, it was a chance to be a part of history.

"Naruto?" I turned at the sound of my name and found a cluster of our friends, dressed in clothes we usually wouldn't be caught dead in. Dress suits with jackets, matching ties all the way down to shoes that shined. The girls where in dress suits with little makeup so it wouldn't run, heels that were barely high, their hair barely done.

I pointed to the pews they were supposed to sit in, and with a silent nod they began their mission to squeeze all of them in together to be close. They wanted to make sure they could comfort each other, be there for each other. The guys wanted to make sure Ino and Sakura wouldn't get hysterical, and I could make out their eyes shifting nervously to the front where the coffin stood and to the back door.

A part of me wanted to go and sit with them, to be close to people who could hold my hand and carry me through this, but the other part of me knew better.

Sasuke always had an amazing independent strength and I wanted to at least pretend that I had some part of that while I sat here and listened to someone tell me my best friend was dead. To not shed a single tear, to hold my head high and carry on with my life like he always did.

I knew I would cry, I knew I wouldn't be able to look forward at the coffin knowing that was Sasuke I was looking at, and I wasn't sure how to carry on without him. Despite how I knew there were people in this room who loved and cared for both him and I, I felt utterly alone.

So I listened.

The words from the Pastor's mouth either struck too deep or didn't register at all. It felt like consciously, I was checking in and out at the worst times. I could hear Ino and Sakura crying behind me because they were in the only row of people who were actually showing emotion besides me.

I was pretty sure I went through a entire box an tissues by the time I got up, having to leave first, and shook the Pastor's hand. I told him he did a great job though I already couldn't remember what he said.

I walked into the back of the church and sighed, hearing the rest of the packed church begin to move around. I turned and waited for my group of friends, not expecting anyone else. I wiped at my face and patted at my pants and shuffled around nervously.

The rest was a blur.

A fog, a blank, or a blackout. However you look at it, its hard to remember anything but the casket going into the ground. Sasuke leaving. Driving to the graveyard with my friends, burying the casket, saying our final farewells; that was the only thing I remember. I remember walking back towards my car, and feeling as though someone had flipped on a light switch.

"Where is the thing?" Kiba was just as great with words as I am, "The Funeral Reception."

I shrugged and rolled my hand, "That small joint on 28th. Gramps rented it out."

Sakura sniffled, "We would have chipped in."

Ah, guilt. She's looking for any and everything to blame on herself right now because she needs it for some reason. So I waved her off, "No, he insisted after I volunteered you all."

I had a few chuckle out of that, but Shikamaru momentarily looked horrified. I waved Kiba over to my small car, "Help me, would you?"

He jogged over, trying not to look worried. But he never did well in drama-club in high school, "What's wrong?"

I sighed, "Where do you want me to start?"

"I'm-"

"Please," I whispered as quiet as I can muster, "Make the girls as comfortable and cheery as possible."

I felt unnaturally impatient with his half second pause, "What about you? I mean, I understand your concern, but you're my top priority."

For some reason, guilt ate at me when he said that. Like I neglected Kiba's friendship when it came to mine and Sasuke's or something, but that wasn't the case.

I sighed, "Worry about me tomorrow. Okay?"

He frowned, "I'll just worry about them a little more for you today."

I tried to smile, I really did, but by the weird look that crossed his face and the playful jab he sent me I knew it looked painful, "I have to drop some stuff off before I head to the restaurant."

He nodded, "Drive safe."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The estate was mine now, so it shouldn't matter where I was dropping the papers off at. I didn't want to exactly look at them either; them or the house for quite some time. So this was the place to put them for the time being. The driveway always seemed too long when I was excited to get inside and see Sasuke, hang out and have fun. Now it seemed too short so I can get inside and see where my best friend spent his last moments.

The door creaked open louder than I wanted, than I liked. It felt empty and hollow in my chest, in my ears and shallowly I registered it in my heart. My footsteps echoed loudly off the marble in the entry, and for a moment I felt like it was going to shatter my eardrums. There was no chatter to fill up the noise, no laughter to take away the dull pain, no smiles to cover the sadness.

I let my fingers trail on the banister like I did the first time I entered the Uchiha estate. It seemed so big then. So giant compared to my tiny home that housed my tiny family. Now I stood alone in a house that seemed too small with familiarity. I remember watching a small Uchiha Sasuke tour me through his home, showing me the first and only time, his awkward side. Only seven, he was there when he caught me before I fell all the way down the stairs. My fingers meet the wall in the hallway upstairs, and my memory guides me away once more, floating away pleasantly.

When we were ten, Sasuke was there when I got lost trying to find the bathroom the first time I spent the night. He came running for me after I was gone for more than ten minutes, thinking I fell all the way down the steps that time. My fingertips find the first inn table and I can feel a broken smile crack through. Sasuke was there when I broke the original. He was the reason. We were thirteen, and I was mad at the world when my Godfather got sick. He told me it wasn't the end and to get over it. Looking back, I know he was trying to say I had him.

He was there when I caught the stove on fire in my house, and helped me put it out. From then on he gave me cooking lessons every Tuesday and Thursday. We were fifteen. He was there when I got my license, and when I got in my first car crash. He was there for all of my birthday's, always being the first I saw and the first to say happy birthday. He was always there to give me the advice I needed to hear before I even asked for it. He was always there when I needed someone for something – anything. He was _always_ there.

My fingers stopped on his door and the sob I was trying to hold in couldn't stay contained any longer when my eyes connected when the bright yellow tape telling me not to enter. I didn't even notice my knees giving out through my sobs till they hit the floor, and I fell forward into the door, and I crumbled.

He was _always_ there.

I couldn't stand the thought of him not anymore. I couldn't stand the thought of being without Sasuke.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

I got to the place with ease, and was surprised to find it still full of people. I was expecting people to gently slide out of sight, mind, and town, but people still came to celebrate Sasuke's life. I heard people talking about him and his accomplishments as I gently walked though the crowd. For the first time in my twenty-three years, I hadn't heard them compare him to Itachi.

They made him shine, made him stand tall, and they even put him on a pedestal, and I silently listened. Instead of trying to compete and sound better – I listened. I laughed at the jokes, smiled at the competitive nature, and hid blushes when I heard constant comments about him and I always being around each other; bickering, joking, competing in something.

I turned away from one just to see old man Sarutobi approach me from the crowd, just singling me out from everyone else. He gave me one of his kind smiles and his 'I-know-everything' looks and stuck out his hand and waited for me to take it.

"Asuma says you've been sniffing around." It was the first thing he said to me with a wink and chuckle, but I played dumb when I shook his hand.

"What are you talking about?"

He laughed a little harder, but not loud enough to be heard over the loud chatter of the crowd, "A detective knows all Naruto. A young man such as yourself should know that."

"A detective _doesn't_ know all." The counter came instantly without my brain really thinking things through, "You didn't know who killed my parents. So who says you know what happened to Sasuke."

So, that was a bit of a dick thing to say honestly. The man in front of me put sixteen years on my parents' case despite it being officially labeled cold, and every time I wondered into his office on some cold boring day, he still managed to have it lying on his desk.

I knew he was working on Sasuke's twice as hard so I wouldn't have to go through the pain of not knowing twice in my life.

His smile dropped just slightly, and he patted my shoulder with more force than I thought he could manage for his age, "Come with me to somewhere more private."

I wasn't even in the mood to make a joke about a Priest and a kid when he swung his arm around me and started to lead me out of the cramped restaurant. It was a bit unsettling to notice all the eyes swiveling to him and I, but it wasn't something out of the ordinary. I was usually spotted with somebody from the precinct.

He led me outside where there was still a large amount of people spread in smaller groups talking in murmurs and turning to see us walk by, spiking in volume rudely when they would say, "It was _that_ boy."

I felt his arm recede from around my shoulders and looked up to see a familiar head of gray hair and then a cloud of smoke and somehow felt as though every stress had left me in an instant.

"Kakashi, Asuma."

It was the oddest partnership the precinct had taken on I was willing to bet, but they had done a great deal of work together and accomplished a lot. Now that they did detective work they were unstoppable.

I stopped in between the three of them, my breath fogging in the cold winter air and coming out as thick as Asuma's cigarette smoke and smearing my vision of them, "What's going on?"

I noticed I kept trying to sound positive like usual, but it had sounded even more forced than when my folks died.

Kakashi leaned back against the car, "Just wanted a little chat. No harm in that, is there? I am your guardian."

A perverted, immature, and crazy guardian I might add. My parents lost their fucking minds when they deemed Kakashi my Godfather.

"I'm twenty-three now, you don't have to guard anything." I try to remind him.

He chuckles with a hint of a cackle which makes me shift more towards Gramps, "I still guard you Naruto."

"Anyway…" I begin, ready to just get back to my house and eat and sleep away this horrible day, "What is this about?"

"We have some questions." Asuma starts.

"No time to waste." Kakashi finishes.

Of course, detective work. They couldn't even wait till after the funeral reception to bug the hell out of me, no, they wanted to make sure I was scarred for life like proper people.

"Alright. Ask."

"Your last day with Sasuke," Asuma starts, and I suddenly felt the urge to vomit, "did he mention anything that seemed odd?"

Like puppies, butterflies and rainbows? Nope.

"It was like any other day." I had already told them this.

"Tell us again." Kakashi said instantly, reading my mind as usual, "One more time."

I shrugged, "Normal day. We both got up, I got up before him, and we hung around the house for awhile."

Kakashi moved out when I turned eighteen, and Sasuke moved in – typical.

"I eventually whined enough that we went out."

"Did he say anything about Itachi?" Asuma interrupted.

I paused longer than I knew was considered appropriate, "You mean his dead brother?"

"Yes." Asuma continued with a dead cigarette that I watched bob away from his lips.

"No. It's a touchy subject."

"Did Sasuke mention anything to you about being in danger?" Kakashi questioned.

I couldn't help it, and I stamped my foot in anger, "NO! Fuck, we've been over all these questions. It was a normal day! _Normal_. Why in the fuck do you keep asking me?"

"And he didn't say anything about going over to the Uchiha estate for any particular reason the next day?" Asuma asked casually.

I wanted scream or punch someone – or both – but I grit my teeth because it was at least a new question, "No. He usually goes out and doesn't tell me where he's going or why. It was a normal day. We went out window shopping and he bought me ice cream and I bought him _Subway_. We came home, watched a couple of movies and fell asleep on the couch."

"Together?" Kakashi asked, amused.

I nodded with a glare I simply hoped Sasuke would be proud of, "Yes."

"And the next morning he was gone?" Asuma asked gently.

I nodded, "I woke up lying on the couch around eleven, with a pillow and blanket. I called his phone and he didn't answer. Around three was when I started looking for him."  
I finally remembered Gramps was still standing next to me when I heard him sigh, and I knew it took all my energy not to jump out of my skin.

I turned and looked at him while he dug his hand into his coat pocket and pulled out an envelope and handed it to me, "Only open it when you're on the road. Don't hesitate in your driving."

"Gramps? What's going on?" I held out the envelope but he nudged it toward my coat pocket with a warning look that actually had me worrying.

"When you get where you are going Naruto, do not leave. Everything will be explained when you get there."

* * *

Apparently I had no choice in this entire matter. The three of them were watching me the entire night, and when I went to leave, they reminded me to go to the destination in which was stated in the envelope. Personally, I was freaking the hell out. I didn't know exactly what was going on but a part of me had a feeling that I was in some type of danger like Sasuke had been.

The only problem was I didn't know what type of danger that was. He was such a secretive prick I never knew a damn thing that was going on in his life; be it good or bad.

So as soon as I hit the highway heading towards my house, I opened the envelope; driving with one hand and digging to retrieve the piece of paper. I held it up, shifting my eyes to get a look at the address and was immediately was confused.

I sighed and looked in my rear view mirror and noticed Kakashi's car, and took the off ramp.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It had been sixteen years since I had been to the property, and as I drove up the semi-familiar driveway I suddenly felt nostalgic. This was where I met Sasuke. Our summer house in the country. The Uchiha house wasn't too far away, and I met small little Uchiha Sasuke down by the river, the two of us kids ready to go fishing in the town's best spot. I was half tempted to jump out of the car and rush to the river to see if he was there, and felt a weight in my gut knowing he wouldn't be.

As I threw my car in park I knew there was some type of protection thing going on until they had some type of hint, control, or idea of what had happened in Sasuke's case. They did the same thing when my parents had died and I moved away with Kakashi for a little while.

I opened the door to the familiar house that painted my memories from my childhood. Spending my childhood summer's here before their death's where the greatest. I waited for the smell of fresh baked cookies, or hear my mom playfully bicker with my father about the fresh caught fish, or hear Sasuke call me some rude nickname…

"Dobe."

I paused inside the entryway and turned to see Sasuke standing there not smirking at me for once. He always smirked. Despite how great it felt to see him again, it felt like another bad dream. It felt like someone was teasing me, testing me, mocking me; I felt my stomach turning against me and I turned immediately to the front door that I left open and puked all over the front step.

I wanted so badly to straighten up and turn around, but the other side of me was frozen at the thought of turning around and would find that it was all apart of this horrible nightmare.  
I felt a cool hand curl around my forehead while I emptied my barely full stomach, another cool hand holding my arm in support.

This couldn't be real. I was at the – I saw them – I watched him…

I spit harshly and spun around, blurred by what I suddenly realized were tears, and I started screaming, meaning to keep my voice level and calm, but my hysteria took control.

"I WAS AT YOUR FUNERAL!" I pushed him, and gasped when my hands collided with him. He was real. Sasuke was real; living, breathing, alive.

"I SAW THEM PUT YOU IN THE GROUND! I WATCHED THEM FUCKING BURY YOU!" I couldn't stand the pain that was ripping in my chest. I had been through a week of torment, hell and pain; and it was lie. I couldn't understand it all.

I grabbed at his arms for that familiar support when my legs went numb and I choked, my yelling turned into a whisper, "I watched the police carry out a … a … y-y-you…"

I was falling apart. Nothing made sense, it was all so wrong. So confusing. So terrifying.

I felt him push his cold lips against my warm forehead, and my knees buckled. He fell with me. I felt him put his hand against my face. He was so cold.  
"I waited for you." He said quietly. I knew he was trying to hide something in his voice, "For six hours."

From the time we took the casket to the grounds to the time I got here, that was six hours and seventeen minutes, that's how long it all took. He was waiting the entire time.

"I asked them," He continued, and I felt him swipe at my bangs and peck at my forehead again. I didn't understand why he was kissing me, why he was being affectionate. I didn't understand so many things. "I asked them to help you too. I said I would do anything to help you too."

"Please explain this…" I wanted to rip my hands away from his arms, but I clung harder.

"To protect you, I had to die."

* * *

Author's Notes: If you _really_ couldn't understand, he's not really dead. It should only last a few chapters, which I swear. If I do decide to extend it, it will be a fiction that will be updated rarely.


	2. Answers in a Daydream

Chapter Two: Answers in a Daydream

Author's Note: I'm glad everyone read it really carefully. You all are going to be going 'Oh!' a little bit in this chapter, because frankly, my lazy ass left quiet a bit out in the last one. I'm _hoping_ to finish next chapter, but my muses work in rather mysterious ways. –sigh- Also if anyone is going to Anime USA, give a shout.

Warnings/Disclaimer: Been done.

Chapter Two: Answers in a Daydream

* * *

_I had to die…_

I had to die…

I had to die…

It was all I could hear, all I could think about and all I could comprehend. Sasuke dying. My tears couldn't stop despite how much I tried willing them to. I tried focusing on positive memoires; my mom and dad taking me to my first theme park, Sasuke and I sneaking out, our inner circle of friends at a bonfire like we did every Friday.

It didn't work. My parents would fade, Sasuke would disappear and my friends would crumble in a world of sadness.

I felt his hands on my face again, and to my surprise they were warming. I could feel him wiping away at my tears on my face and again I tried to grasp on to these gestures that were so unlike him. Unlike _my_ Sasuke.

"I stood outside till you got here." He whispered. I tried to look at his face, but I could only take in a very blurred image of my more blurred world because of my damn uncontrollable tears. "I just wanted to make sure you got here safely." But it at least explained why he was so cold, and my brain could stop rationalizing that Sasuke was dead and that I was fooling myself into thinking he was alive.

"I wanted to go back inside so you wouldn't turn back around." He confessed knowing me all too well, but obviously not knowing Kakashi had followed me. Absently I wondered where he was now, and absently I knew he was in the garage where my parents added another room.

My stomach was churning more and more as he whipped at my face and my mind was losing itself in a haze of confusion the more I tried to sort things out. I knew for a fact that Uchiha Sasuke was alive. That was for sure.

And at that sudden revelation, everything felt okay again. Confusing – so damn confusing – but okay. I knew that so many things were wrong, and that was why we were here, but that didn't matter. I had Sasuke alive and well, and that made things okay. And I cried because of that. My hands had left his arms and found my lap, but I was soon reaching out and looking for comfort in simply touching him. I wanted to find a simple grounding in a solid truth. I wanted to convince myself over and over that he was _really_ alive. I pushed against his chest more times than I could count, and I awkwardly grabbed his arms and trailed my hands to his.

It made me jump, when his forehead was suddenly pressed and gently rested against mine. I was still being blindfolded by my forever falling tears that he stopped clearing, and now they were fallon my dress shirt. He had grabbed my hands and everything that I thought I had grasped to understand in the past thirty seconds was starting to spin again.

"I told them I didn't want to go that far." He explained dryly, leaving out so much, "I said I didn't want to put you through that."

I knew my body went more rigid than possible than when he moved his forehead just barely against mine by simply breathing, and I tried to relax. I just couldn't understand why Sasuke was acting…_not_ like Sasuke. He was always selfish, arrogant, and cocky. Now he was comforting, understanding, and caring. Opposite to an insane degree and I couldn't understand. I suddenly wished my life was a videogame and someone could put in cheat codes for all the right answers. And a reset button.

I took a few deep breaths trying to settle down and I squeezed on his hands, "Please explain this from the start Sasuke. I'm so confused."

"Let's sit somewhere more appropriate." He ushers, and he starts guiding me up from the floor.

My crying had settled somewhat and the part of my brain that registers manly pride was shutting down while it caught up with recent events. My legs felt like some sort of rubber as I managed to get to my feet, but Sasuke guided me. My mind was still in a haze, and I was still lost in it. So he held onto my hands and tugged me up, and gently guided me to the couch.

Again, he showed me a side that I never knew he had.

We sat down and it took him a few moments to pull his hands away from mine, but it was at that time I registered the silence. The still air made my brain try and turn over the complex turn of events that just took place. But Sasuke broke that just to complicate it more.

"Tell me everything." He said quietly.

I didn't understand why – again. I figured it would continue that way for most of the night and continue over into tomorrow, but I still tried to make sense of it all. Why he wanted to know what I had been through, what I had seen, what I had felt. That was usually _my_ job. I wanted to share things with people, walk with them through everything, and guide them through it. If someone I knew was hurting, I wanted to hurt with them. If they were happy, I wanted to be happy with them. That wasn't Sasuke.

So I began to tell him everything.

"From the estate…" I swallowed hard when it flashed in my head and it felt like someone slashed at my stomach, "Right?"

I didn't want to start with my paranoid searching and my anxiety ridden thoughts when I first woke up without him around to harass me.

He nodded and I watched his eyes dance around my face, "When I got there, the police already found you?" I suddenly questioned everything I saw and heard. Everything was a show to me, but I wasn't sure to who else.

"They taped off the house, so I climbed over the gate." I confessed. In my panic upon seeing the yellow strips signaling my exile, I abandoned my car and all form of sanity and climbed the fence only to be greeted by seven officers at gun point.

"Kakashi told them to stand down." I muttered, filling in the unsaid detail, "He tried to tell me he would come by later to explain everything but I got impatient because I was worried. He kept telling me everything was going to be fine but I could tell he was lying."

I swear it was the unsaid and worldly answer to tell you 'it's fine' when everything is falling to pieces, plus Kakashi was a notorious liar and somehow I had become the only one to be able to tell when he was lying.

"They brought out the body bag then." I pushed on, not wanting to carry on with every waking detail in mine and Kakashi's fight, though I'd rather linger on that than the image that was now tearing at my brain. "I kept asking who it was…"

At that moment in time, I was desperate to believe it wasn't Sasuke, though it could only be him. We were the only ones who ever went inside the Uchiha estate, and Sasuke had gone missing. At that moment in time, I wanted to do anything not to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

But I knew.

"I started … I don't know. Kakashi called it a panic attack. So he took me outside the gates. He said something about 'out of sight, out of mind', but I couldn't get under control."  
I had just seen the body bag that was carrying my best friend, and here someone was trying to keep me calm, cool and collected. Part of me wanted to go to the garage and laugh at Kakashi right in his face.

"He started explaining," I moved on, ignoring the thought of being so fidgety. I had always been a fidgety kid; always been unable to sit still, always hyper, always ready to do something. I never realized I was like this when I was uncomfortable or nervous.

"You know Kakashi," I forced out the laugh and ignored the glare Sasuke's eyes naturally pulled, "He didn't lie. He went straight to the point. He wouldn't sugar coat it for me just so someone would come along and tell me the…uh…truth? He told me that…God…"

I hated talking about this. Damn it being fake because it was downright uncomfortable. It made my stomach turn again, and I looked into the bowl in my hands instead of the shirt Sasuke was wearing. I don't remember grabbing the bowl, and I knew he must have thought to get one at one point in time.

"He said it was a-" I wanted to vomit, and I swallowed two or three times just thinking about the word in relation to Sasuke. I called him a slew of names in relation to the word, but when I was faced with the situation head on I felt like something was ending. Something big, too big.

"He said it was a suicide." There, I managed to get it out. One hurtle down, "Something about pills. He said that I needed to get home while he investigated and he was sending Kiba over. He said that being there was bad for me. He got Asuma to drive me."

I heard Sasuke do something I never once heard him do and that was sigh. It wasn't aggravated or irritated (emotions I was known to cause), it was a sigh that sounded so dead. Like all his emotions had shut down suddenly.

But I kept talking because I knew if I stopped there would be no continuing, "I barely remember the week. Kakashi and Asuma were in and out and asking me a lot of questions. All about you, us, your family, my family, our family ties, your actions, my actions and damn it all they even asked your fucking blood type. They were really playing there part, huh? It felt like they were never going to stop-" I was ranting, I knew I was. It was only a matter of time before I started crumbling into an insane ramble that turned into a jumbled mess of words, "Lawyers where in and out with the police, and people where in and out constantly.

I don't even remember who came to visit any more. People where making sure I ate, people where cleaning up for me. I think. I don't know. I don't understand. I just remember in a blink of an eye that I was suddenly staring at you in a coffin and I felt like my world was ending."

That's how it went. Days blurred on with no sleep, planning his funeral, and endless amounts of guests. It felt like one minute I was breaking down in front of the Uchiha manor and when I blinked, I was in the funeral home trying to cling to my sanity.

I felt him swipe at my hair again, but this time it felt more cautious than comforting, like he was scared I would push him away or tell him stop. I don't know why he gave damn, Sasuke always did what he wanted anyway.

"My brother Itachi wasn't dead." He started, still quiet and hearing him talk instantly calmed me. "He's been around for some time."

"Why did you lie about it?" Of all the things that came to mind, that was the first that came out of my mouth. It was childish and stupid, but I never lied to him about a single thing. I kept things from my other friends, and walked around subjects with family friends, but I never did anything like that with Sasuke.

"To protect you." He said it simply, almost lightly, like it was the most obvious answer in the world. "I had to die to protect you. To the world, to almost everyone around you and I, I died."

I was told things were going to be explained to me, but I had a feeling Sasuke didn't want to. A part of me felt like he was the shy, awkward little boy that was touring me through the mansion all the years ago. That I was listening to the fear in his voice that I heard once or twice that he never meant to let leak through. A part of me knew he didn't want to explain all this. That he wanted to keep this part of his life a secret, because that was how he was. But the word 'protect' made my head swim.

"You know the police protection program ranges in degrees of protection."

I nodded dumbly. I was a basic level case, easy said and easy done. No harm done, and in a blink of an eye I could return home.

"My brother was never dead."

It seemed like he was telling things out of order in hopes to confuse me even more in hopes he wouldn't have to talk about it anymore. I could tell with how much he was jumping around from topic to topic.

"He started making death threats." I blinked at the sudden hallow sound in his voice, but it was gone in an instant, "First they were nothing, distant, something easily ignored."

Fair enough. Seemed enough like Sasuke to ignore something that he didn't want to deal with.

"He started stalking us." This was the information I _didn't_ want to know. The things that would purposely and in a paranoid state make things go bump in the night. "He started making threats on your life to hurt me. So I went to Kakashi and Asuma."

There was a gap, "You're leaving something out."

He either snorted or growled, but I couldn't tell at that point, "Which would be?"

"Practically everything."

I thought it was an easy and simple reminder, but I could tell it upset him in some way.

"When my parents died, he was supposed to take care of me." I knew that already. Of course, what I was told was he died shortly after in some type of accident, "But he left."

"So shouldn't that give _you_ the right to be the psycho killer?" I asked, and smiled when he smirked at the worst joke I've ever cracked. But the fact that I could force that lighter air during this horrible situation, even for two seconds, helped me.

"I still don't know why." I wanted to call a whole time out on this entire talk and call the world over to listen to Uchiha Sasuke say he didn't know something, albeit concerning human emotions and that not being his forte. "I don't know why he left, or why he started harboring these ill feelings toward me, but they festered for some time and we're here as the end result."

So I took a deep breath, and decided to try at getting everything right, hoping I kept up with everything, "So, Itachi wanted to kill you?"

"Us." He corrected quickly. And that made more sense than anything suddenly. Why he pretended to die, and why he said he had to protect me. I felt calmer now that I was getting answers, that I was starting to understand despite the new fact that my life was now on the line.

"Kakashi had suggested a few things once I went to him." Instantly people would picture a joking Kakashi being absolutely ridiculous. He's not an ass all the time, and surprisingly enough people's lives are actually important to him.

"None of them were good enough. I wanted to make sure you were safe." I wanted to laugh at that.

"Itachi wouldn't stop until I was dead." _That_ was the Sasuke I was used to. Straight to the point and blunt to a degree, and boy did it ever work. It had my stomach give an uncomfortable lurch at the thought of many things, but I listened.

"I brought up the fact that Itachi had been threatening not only me, but you as well, that we needed to keep in mind your wellbeing." And right back to this new Sasuke that confused me to no end.

"So we set out a plan to immediately fake my death." He said this softer than I expected and a part of me wondered if he felt bad. I think he did. For not telling me, not being able to, and having to put me through all this hell. Having me live through all of this again.

"You know I wasn't allowed to tell you." I wanted to laugh at how he didn't question it and simply stated it, but instead I nodded when he confirmed what I was thinking.

"So…you don't know why this is happening?"

It was the only confusing part left in this entire situation. Almost. I got that Sasuke was protecting him and I, and he had to fake his own death to do so. The fact that I went missing, I didn't know how it was going to be explained but with how Kakashi, Asuma and Gramps were acting, I figured they had it all covered. They always did. That was pretty much the situation – everything in one simple explanation and it took us forever to beat around that damn proverbial bush to get to it.

"No."

Fair enough. He was safe and I was safe and for the time being I was perfectly accepting of everything that was going on. I knew later once my real mentality caught up with me, and I wasn't reliving my friend's fake death and funeral I would go berserk for no reason.

"I'm going to make food for everyone." He said suddenly and he began to get off the couch, and he quickly handed me the remote to the television. "We're only staying this one night. Keep the volume down."

Everyone, one night, volume low? Damn him.

"Wait." I grabbed at his wrist and tugged him back, "Wasn't everything shut off on the property years ago?"

Sasuke shook his head, "No. Kakashi kept the property opened in case you ever wanted to get away or you wanted to move here. He's been paying everything."

Well, there was a nice new lump of guilt sitting in my stomach. And something else I felt I needed to pay Kakashi back for.

"Who else is here?"

"They are watching the property," He corrected, "Kakashi, Asuma, Mr. Sarutobi, Anko, Tsunade..."

I held up my hand to stop him hearing every name in the damn book and knowing who was following, "Where are we going?"

He actually shrugged, "I'm not sure. Kakashi suggested we leave the country for a little bit."

I know my mouth was hanging open, but I couldn't help it. This was my home. I had a life here and – _ah_. There was the absurd rage trying to rear its ugly head. If that was what I had to do to make sure Sasuke and I were safe, that was what I would do. I was fine with that. Being a college drop out put a bit of a weight in my stomach, and leaving my friends without so much as a word left a bad taste in my mouth, but as long as he was safe.

"Why the volume low on the television?"

Okay, so even I knew that was dumb. So he just simply gave me a dumb look and turned to make sure that the curtains were drawn over. Those things were like lead anyway. They drove me insane when I was outside as a kid because I could never tell if anyone was awake and inside. No light could ever seep through. Leave it to my mother.

He went to walk off towards the kitchen again to the mental picture I had concocted of him being '_Sasuke the house mother_', but I knew he was probably throwing together a bunch of sandwiches. But, I still had one last unanswered question that I wanted to know.

"Sasuke?"

I stopped him in the doorway on the way out of the room. It was a bad habit my mom had. She would stop everyone in the most inconvenient place they were and ask them something or ask them to do something. So of course I picked it up.

He raised his eyebrow to signal me to go on, and suddenly I felt uncomfortable asking. "What is it dobe?"

I wanted to jump up, point and laugh at the nickname simply for the familiar feeling of the comfortable air back at our old small house. I suddenly had the sudden urge to call him a teme and stick my tongue out at him.

But instead I forced out the awkward question that was waiting Impatiently in my mouth.

"Why were you so worried about me?"

I know to anyone else that would sound entirely stupid. Sasuke worried a little about me. I was absentminded and would occasionally get myself into some serious situations. But he never showed the worry. He would roll his eyes, cluck his tongue and tell me I was an idiot. Nothing more, nothing less. So to see how he worried over me like this was downright shocking. I just simply didn't know he had that degree of caring in him, especially if it was reserved for me.

Before I knew it, he was sitting on the coffee table in front of me, but he immediately stood up when I frowned. After our house had been broken into (which I now wonder if it was Itachi), I moved the table back here for safe keeping, seeing as how so many things had been broken. It was the only thing I ever got to build with my father. It took us a long time, but I was proud of it, despite it having a lean to it.

He sat on the arm of the couch where I could tell it was going to be a short explanation and he was off to fix food.

I felt his fingers rake through my hair quickly, and I glanced up at him, and I can't explain the feeling I had when we locked eyes. I've never seen him so serious, then again, I've never seen this side of him before. It felt like he was forcing himself to be exposed to me.

But in an instant, his fingers were gone and he was standing up and I was sitting there without an answer.

Or so I thought, but his voice carried from where he stood just in the hallway just where I couldn't see him.

"Because I love you."

* * *

Author's Notes: Writing at three in the morning is _stupid_.  
Anyway: I'm hoping to have updates soon for: _Chasing the Darkness, Breakable, and Laughing Silently._ While also trying to edit AEOY, ALLTF and If Only. XD Who needs sleep anyway?


	3. In One Blink

Chapter Three: In One Blink

Author's Notes: I know I said one more should do it. Leave it to me to be wrong about the length, right? But I'm sticking to not extending the fiction. I know others as well as myself see this thing extending into a full blown, full length fiction. I'm sticking to five chapters or under.

Warnings/Disclaimer: I've done them.

Chapter Three: In One Blink

* * *

When I woke up this morning I immediately shot up in panic. I didn't remember falling asleep last night. The last thing I remembered was something that could only have been either some type of dream or some type of joke. Sasuke's voice kept echoing in my head with explanations of one thing layering over the other, but the last thing he had said for the night was screaming over the others.  
_  
Because I love you_…

My mind instantly shot back to the day where Sasuke had gone missing, and my brain panicked and my stomach dropped. I got up from the couch and ran what I assumed was drunkenly through my house, opening my mouth to call out until I collided blindly with something so solid it knocked me to the ground.

"What's wrong dobe?" Sasuke's voice sounded calm, but a little annoyed. I was guessing I had run into him, and I had added that touch of Uzumaki irritation just like always.

I know the laugh that came out sounded nervous and embarrassed, "Nothing. Morning jog."  
_  
Morning jog_? What in the fuck? If he bought that then -

"Yeah, I'm sure." He said after a snort, but he stuck out his hand in my face as I sat up ready to hop up like the whole incident hadn't happened. It took me a moment to collect myself and realize that Sasuke was actually offering to help me up. His hand was cold again when I took it for him to help me. He lifted me with his usual ease, and took his hand away as quickly as he gave it.

I held in the laugh that wanted to come barreling out at the thought of Sasuke actually telling me he loved me. He was back to normal Sasuke. It was like someone breathed a dose of life (if it were possible) straight into my lungs. I smiled and I knew to him it was random, but he was used to things like that. I got lost in thoughts that would come and go, daydreams and simple things; he was plenty used to it.

"Why are you so cold?" I went to go get my blanket from the couch, that I assumed I pulled on me before I went under, so he followed behind me talking casually.

"The garage has practically no heat. Just the small one."

Oh shit.

"Is Kakashi-?"

"He's fine." He immediately cut me off when I grabbed my blanket and threw it around him, "Everyone is fine."

I nodded slowly, another question popping in my head, "How long where you in there?"

He shrugged, "I was in and out all night."

I frowned, "You didn't sleep?" He knew I was going to lecture him. I don't know why I was going to bother. I completely understood why he couldn't sleep, and I was even impressed he was blinking.

I knew I passed out after my emotions has run dry, and I had become drained and my body finally shut down with relief, but the thought of him not getting a bit of sleep bothered me.

"We're leaving soon." He stated hollowly, and I could tell it was because he was worried. Despite how much Sasuke tried to hide his emotions, I could now read him like an open book.

"How soon?" And I couldn't hide the worry in my voice, it was unmistakable.

"Ten maybe fifteen minutes." He said gently, but the next sentence made my heart hit the floor, "You leave before me."

"What?" I know my body seized up and went rigid, but I couldn't help it.

"We have to leave separately." He sat down on the couch and I followed suit, watching him carefully as he pulled things out of his pockets and sat them on the coffee table and smiling when they slid lightly because of the lean.

"These are the things you're going to need," He said gently, and apart of me suddenly wanted to cry. It felt like we were saying goodbye. He wouldn't look at me, and his tone of voice wasn't his usual 'I-don't-care' attitude. It sounded dead and final, scared and alone.

"This is your new ID and passport. The plane ticket, and all the information you'll need on where you're going and staying." New ID? What about my life? My home, my friends, what in the fuck about my damn bank account? I can't even transfer my college credits now if they changed my identity. But all of that seemed meaningless when something else snapped to the forefront of my attention.

I could feel my throat closing up, "You're coming to."

I had to state it instead of question it. I couldn't question it. Just thinking about questioning it made me want to break down all over again.

"I don't know when." He whispered so low I barely caught it, "I want to make sure you're safe first. You should just go."

I knew I was going to snap at one point or another, and I finally found the breaking point. It was my best friend telling me to go on without him. _Planning_ for me to go on without him. I snapped.

When I shot up from my position on the couch, I was surprised I didn't knock _something_ over, anything, but I supposed Lady Luck waved her wand for that one second before my mouth shot off like a bottle rocket straight out of hell.

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHEN?" I shouldn't be yelling. "I SHOULD JUST GO? FUCK YOU, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"

Sasuke was standing up in an instant, leaving the blanket behind him not caring about warming himself but shutting my dumbass up. "Nar-"

"NO!" I shouldn't have shoved him, but I reached my limit, "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! PUT YOURSELF IN MY SHOES! HAVE ME DIE, HAVE ME LEAVE YOU! I'M NOT LEAVING YOU AGAIN YOU SON OF A BITCH AND THAT'S FUCKING FINAL!"

I sounded like my mom when she fought with my dad irrationally over something completely stupid, though I know this wasn't. I couldn't be separated from him again; I wouldn't be able to stand it. I'd lose my mind. I'd constantly be wondering if he was alright, if Itachi was near him, if the next time I saw him if he would be alive or at his real funeral. I tried to get my body to calm down, feeling my frame shaking from nerves, fear and overwhelming sadness.

There they were again, his fingers raking through my hair like it was an ordinary occurrence, and I felt myself relaxing, "I'll go with you."

His decision was made in a blink of an eye, and instead of thinking that he was lying to calm me down I knew he was actually going to go. Lord knows I'd kill him myself if he wasn't in the seat on the plane with me.

"The risk is higher." Kakashi was in the doorway, a can of some energy drink in one hand and a bagel in the other. "You wanted Naruto to go alone incase Itachi tried to target you, correct? That raises the risks of you both being seen, found out and hurt."

Sasuke's fingers never left my hair, but they kept combing through calmingly, "It's fine."

"It's far from fine." But Kakashi sounded completely calm, "The risks are too high. I can't let you two leave here at the same time."

Sasuke's fingers finally left my hair, and I watched tensely as he shrugged while he turned to face Kakashi completely and properly. "We leave together or we stay together."

"Or get arrested together." He retorted.

"That's fine too." I heard Sasuke say, though he was facing away from me, "But we aren't separating."

There was a long pause that filled the room with tense air. It made me feel almost like I was choking waiting for a final answer. Unintentionally, I grabbed for Sasuke's hand when I wasn't really thinking. I felt his hand flinch instinctively before his fingers curled and laced with mine with an iron like grip refusing to let go.

It was at that moment Kakashi sighed, which I knew was out of frustration, "Fine. Get essentials. The two of you have things upstairs that the precinct confiscated from the house, chose from that and fill only one backpack. Toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, and other care products are lying out on Naruto's old bed. I'm guessing you remember where your old room is?"

Dumbly I nodded, "Yeah."

"Get moving. You have fifteen minutes."

I turned sharply to look at Sasuke knowing my face was shocked and horrified. He wanted to dismiss me in fifteen minutes? We were risking our lives in _just_ fifteen minutes. I was leaving my life behind in just fifteen minutes.

I felt him tug on my hand when Kakashi disappeared from sight, and I was guessing he was informing everyone at the sudden and rash change of plans. I started moving my feet and I soon took the lead. It felt weird, actually moving through the house that I only visited in my memories. I had only stayed in the front room the entire night, not really moving from the couch. It was at that moment I realized I needed to go to the bathroom, I was hungry and thirsty.

It seemed like Sasuke knew all of that.

"We'll grab something before we leave and go to the bathroom before you get the food."

Food and bathroom before we leave, got it. So, that leaves about ten minutes to get packing and ten minutes left alone with Sasuke.

I walked down the long hallway that led off the front room thinking that. That I only had ten minutes left alone with Sasuke before we walked off to face the unknown. I didn't pay attention to the pictures I wanted to adore, I didn't count each step up the staircase like I did when I was a kid, and I ignored the door to my parents room when I reached the top of the stairs. I had even forgotten that I still had Sasuke's hand in a death grip till that moment.

I slowly released his hand then, and walked towards my door that was closed. It still had stickers littering the sky blue paint and to my surprise the poster from my favorite movie at the time was still tattered and clinging to the door.

I opened the door to find it the same as it was sixteen years ago. When I had come to drop off the table, I never once had gone anywhere in the house but just inside the door and then I was gone again. I always thought that it belonged to Kakashi in all honesty, that's why I brought the table here a few years back. I thought it was just some place he kept for no good reason, or maybe because he knew I would kill him if he sold it. I just never knew it was in my name, and he had been keeping it in the same shape and dust free.

There were piles of clothes next to my small bed; one pile was obviously mine with the bright clothes and the darker toned pile obviously belonged to Sasuke. The bed was littered with care products and a backpack each.

Silently we each took a step inside the room and got started. I scrambled for things to say, and each thing just wasn't right. I tried to come up with something befitting for the time being, but nothing quite fit in with the problem at hand.

But he took the silence harsher than I thought and began to speak for me, and once again, he said something I had no idea he knew how to say.

"I'm sorry."

If the situation wasn't so serious I would have passed out from shock.

"I'm sorry for dragging you into all of this," He continued on in a murmur, probably worried Kakashi would hear him and poke fun.

"It's not your fault." I tried to manage to shove my favorite T-shirt in on top of everything else I managed to stuff in the backpack, but the shirt was taken from my hands and I watched Sasuke put it in his pack instead.

"I meant what I said."

That sentence made my heart thud in my chest and my cheeks burned just knowing what he was talking about. The thought of my best friend loving me made more since today than it did last night. Last night I was trying to comprehend the line between life and death along with the line between love and hate, today I simply had to put my answers on the floor for him to see.

"I-"

"Boys." Kakashi stood in the doorway, a few wrapped sandwiches in his hand and an all to serious look on his face that I had only seen once before. I felt my stomach lurch at the thought of what Sasuke and I were about to face together when Kakashi waved us on.

"Bathroom if you need it, and then we leave."

From the moment we walked out of the house, I didn't let go of his hand.

Only Kakashi's car was in the driveway, but the minute we got in the junky _Sundance_ that he swore by, he got on the radio and called in instructions. Part of me felt like that was the only precaution that wasn't the safest bet so far, until he used the coding that I couldn't comprehend.

From then on it was silent. I didn't touch the food that was brought along, or the drinks that were handed to us. I never once saw a car following us and I could only assume they were taking different routes to the airport. They all took the same time no matter which way you went, but I figured they thought it would look suspicious with a caravan rolling down a usually empty country road. No ever said a word, no one ever called over the walkie, and no one even bothered to turn on the radio. We left each other to stew in their own thoughts. Before I could find the only dark corner in my mind and contently sit and stew, we found ourselves at the airport, and I found myself smack dab in the middle of an anxiety attack. It felt like I was dying while my brain panicked, my stomach churned, dropped and knotted, and realization after realization hit my like a ton of bricks.  
Kakashi opened his car door after he radioed in to Asuma and looked for us to follow, but Sasuke waved him off.

"I'll grab the bags from the back." Kakashi said in understanding.

I looked at Sasuke, knowing I had to show my confusion clearly on my face, "What?"

He sighed, "Promise me something."

I never really knew Sauske could talk so much in his life, "Alright."

"Promise me you won't do anything stupid. Promise me you'll just listen if something happens." He was saying it with such a dead tone it felt like my chest was collapsing.

I tried to rationalize, "Nothing will happen."

"Promise me."

He always used that firm tone like my father did, and it always worked like a charm, "I promise."

It didn't register right away what he was doing while it was happening until that one spark of my sanity caught up with the scene playing out before my very eyes and I realized Sasuke was kissing me. Before I even thought about doing anything he was pulling me by the hand to get out of the car, and Kakashi was handing us our backpacks.  
I felt Sasuke pull his hand away, and my hand felt unnaturally cold and I wanted to latch my hand onto his again but instead I listened to the instructions.

"Straight to the terminal. Check that in as carry on, and don't hesitate. If something happens, we're all here."

I noticed it then, Kakashi's tone of voice. He was worried. I understood why I suppose. I was like his son; he raised me since I was a kid. Now he had to do something any type of didn't want to do.

We both nodded, and then we were off across the parking lot and in through the double doors. The airport was crowded just like it always was like any given day. The hustle and bustle of travelers crawled through the building and I was suddenly worried about getting lost from Sasuke than anything else, but I kept moving just like we were told.

But then I had seen him. We were halfway inside the main part of the airport when I caught sight of him.

I had seen a picture of Sasuke's brother once in my time knowing him. It was hanging on the wall in his parent's house by the river, before everything in his and my life had gone wildly awry. I felt my stomach clench painfully when I realized I was staring at a live ghost from Sasuke's painful past staring at us. He was standing against a pillar, pale and impassive, and horrifying in the moving passersby who had no idea what was going on. I instantly grabbed for Sasuke's hand where it had originally been swinging idly next to me and grabbed a hold of it like it was my only salvation.

He tore his hand away just as soon as I grabbed it as if I burned him, "Go dobe."

"What?" I tried to grab at his hand again to drag him towards our terminal, or any for that matter, but he jerked his hand out of the way while his eyes were locked forward.

"Go with Kakashi." His voice was starting to get a snappish tone, but I was starting to panic. Things were going wrong and fast, and now he was trying to get me the hell out of dodge without him. I also took my eyes off of Itachi, and when I chanced a glance, he wasn't where I last noticed him.

My heart skipped and my breath left me, but I kept walking to wherever Sasuke was going until he stopped and turned towards me with a maddening snap.

"So fucking help me Naruto, go with Kakashi."

I opened my mouth to say no to him, but at that moment I felt a hand wrap around my upper arm and it made me jump so bad I stumbled, but I found Kakashi staring over my head and tugging me along like a lost child.

"Move it."

"No!" I kept the harsh protest quiet and turned to look and see every member of our escort coming out of the woodwork.

"Sasuke!" Kakashi tugged roughly on my arm to the point I stumbled when I tried to hold my ground, and he continued constantly to make sure I moved.  
In the blink of an eye the crowd had covered any sight of Sasuke or Itachi, and my breathing turned erratic and my mind had gone frantic. I wanted to tell him – needed to tell him – that I loved him too. I couldn't leave without telling him if we were going to get separated for awhile.

And then I heard the gunshots.

* * *

Author's Notes: I completely and totally intended to end it on this chapter. Honestly. Something just inspired me, so…soon it'll be done. Promise. On another, positive, better note; updates all around this week. _Chasing the Darkness_ will be updated either later today or tomorrow, and then hopefully I can get out _Laughing Silently_ or _Rented to Be_ after that later this week. But my dad's birthday is this week and I have a bridal shower to plan – so we'll see.


	4. At Long Last

Chapter Four: At Long Last

Author's Notes: I apologize (deeply). I hit the biggest writer's block wall I've ever hit. It killed all my writing. But I'm kinda…sorta…back? Anyway, here is the last chapter. To the best of my ability I'm working on other chapters but holidays are really busy.

Warning/Disclaimer: Been done, all finished.

Chapter Four: At Long Last

* * *

It was the last thing I heard.

I remember dreaming of nothing for awhile, like staring at a blank television screen, but suddenly the noises came on full blast. There were so many people screaming and yelling in panic, so many people unaware of what was going on. Above all the terrified and piercing noises, I heard the gunshots.

It wasn't just one.

It was one after the other, after the other, after the other.

Each one made my heart feel as though it was slowing to a stop, like someone was holding it in some fierce grip and refusing to let up until it burst. Like it was ending my life just simply by a sound. I can't figure out if this is a dream or if I'm dying. I can't tell if I'm stuck in some horrible nightmare, void of any sign of Sasuke.

God, what about Sasuke?  
_  
Because I love you…_

What about Sasuke?  
_  
I love you.  
_  
Sasuke. I need Sasuke.

Waking up in a hospital isn't anything like they show in a movie. It isn't glamorous and bright. It's terrifying. It's not slow and glorious, making that moment time stopping. It's slow and tortuous making it feel like you're being hurt all over again.

At least…that's what happened to me.

When I woke up, I expected to wake up in my usual bed at my house. I expected this all to be some very horrible dream with some very bad punch line. I figured I'd shuffle out of my room to find Sasuke cooking breakfast and calling me dobe while I told him what I had a dream about, then I'd run for the hills because he confessed to me in the dream of course.

That's what I expected…wanted…needed.

That's what I didn't get.

The first real feeling I got was gagging. I kept trying to throw up or swallow whatever was shoved down my throat, but it wouldn't budge. It wouldn't go away. It was so uncomfortable – unbearable. It felt like it was going to be that way for an eternity. It was all I could focus on. Before I knew it, I heard a familiar voice.

"Lay still Naruto."

It was Kakashi, that cunning fuck head. He sounded perfectly fine and all the while I couldn't tell him I was going insane from gagging. But just as the sensation was really starting to get at me, it was suddenly gone.

It took me three hours to wake up fully.

That's what Kakashi told me when I finally came around completely.

The first sensation was the breathing tube that I had been gagging on. The next, my hearing began to slowly register things going on around me; the nurses, the machines, the doctors, and the television. Kakashi was silent. Slowly, and the longest process, my body started to come to along with my mind. I could feel the hospital gown and the IV line and even the horrible catheter. It didn't compare to how hard it was to open my eyes. Like I had been waking from a thousand year sleep. Not only did I have to sort out dreaming from reality, but I had to make sure what I was seeing as soon as my vision cleared, was all real.

Kakashi had a giant bandage around his face. It was the first thing I saw. I didn't notice the room, the nurse, or the stupid kid yelling about a soda on the other side of my curtain; I only saw my Godfather injured for the first time in my life. I've seen him sick, I've been him sad, but never hurt. Kakashi was always reckless, but I had never seen him hurt. I suddenly felt like a scared kid again, afraid that something important to me was going to be lost. Kakashi was the closest thing I had to a parent and despite how much I couldn't stand him sometimes, I didn't want this for him.

I tried to open my mouth to speak, but he easily showed he was more than well enough to pick on me. He flicked my temple, "You won't have a voice. They had a tough time getting the tube down."

"_So._" It was more of a ghostly whisper than my booming voice, but I'll take what I can get, "_What happened?_"

The three seconds of silence was enough to make it feel like someone punched me in the gut, because in those three seconds of silence I immediately went to worse case scenario and assumed everyone was dead.

I couldn't help the tears.

He couldn't help laughing at me.

He ruffled my hair, and I feel even more like a kid. He always did it when I was upset about the smallest thing; I didn't like what I was having for lunch, Sasuke irritated me, I got a bad score on a test, bad dream. He always ruffled my hair.

I knew bad news would mingle with light air.

"Itachi knew we were coming." He started, deciding to forget about beating around the bush. "He went to the airport the moment the police reported you had gone missing. He had been lingering around since, just waiting."

I could hear the guilt in his voice. That one single flaw in this entire laid out plot, he was going to rest on his shoulders. No one else's but his.

"Tsunade is upstairs with Grandpa Sarutobi." My chest hurt when he said that, I knew why, I just didn't want to admit it, "They don't think he'll make it."

My throat felt like it was closing up all over again, and I couldn't find the words or the strength to say a thing about this. The man who helped protect me, practically threw away his life to give me answers, he was dying. And I couldn't do anything.

"Asuma broke his arm. Iruka hit his head pretty hard. Anko was shot twice trying to get bystanders out of the way. Four bystanders were killed."

Shit. They were all supposed to be okay.

"Sasuke is…"

I couldn't help it. My body reacted on its own. He had the same tone about Sasuke as he did for Gramps, and my body reacted on its own. I felt bad for the poor nurse who'd have to clean up my vomit from off the floor, but I just couldn't help it. I was supposed to wake up and say hello, not be forced to say goodbye.

Not again.

"Nurse!" I heard Kakashi call the poor person while he shoved me back in place on the uncomfortable bed, "We need a little help."

It was another twenty five minutes of torture. Stuck in my mind of never ending bad scenarios and immediately thinking the worst. Never ending. I could tell Kakashi didn't want to talk about anything in front of the nurse, so he waited, and I tried. I felt like I was suffocating in a nightmare.

Before I knew it, Kakashi was there waking me up.

"Sasuke is fine."

The nurse was in the middle of slipping a gown over my head despite my quiet protesting, but her pointing out she had to do it because of my IV line, she won. I jerked so hard when Kakashi said Sasuke was fine, I almost ripped it out.

"Careful!"

I wanted to tell the nurse _'sorry_' or make a wise crack about how she could at least mix in a pain killer with anti-nausea, but I couldn't. Sasuke was _okay_.

Relief flooded me to the point I felt tears try to fight their way down my face, and I had to use every ounce of my strength and composure out of sheer happiness.

The nurse left the room without me realizing she was gone, and Kakashi continued on, "He's at the station. Paperwork and all."

He's safe.

"Itachi won't hurt you boys anymore." His voice was gentle, and a part of me wanted to nag him about calling me a 'boy', but another part of me wanted to ask about Itachi.

"Sasuke will explain everything."

Right, I understand. It was his right to tell me the end of the dark side of his life story, no one else's. I did figure though I was allowed to find out the answer to my last question.

"_What's wrong with me_?"

He sighed like a wiry old man, and I tried to make a note to store an old man joke or two for when everything was said and done.

"You were trampled." Well that's scary news. "The crowd surged and split us apart and you fell."

It was amazing how I couldn't remember anything past fearing for Sasuke's life.

"But that stubborn will of yours…" I watched him crack a smile, "You better not lose it."

I honestly didn't think it was all that serious, being in a hospital. I was one accident prone kid growing up. I mean, I know most of the staff pretty well. But I listened as Kakashi tell me how I almost didn't make it, how they thought there was going to be head trauma or internal bleeding. I finally took notice to my broken leg and almost fell out of the bed, and graciously he calmed me down. According to him, along side my fucked up leg, I just had some bumps, bruises and cuts to add to the equation. How I got that out of almost dying, I didn't question.

He told me through a long drawn out and pitiful explanation that he saved me. A man that loved to brag couldn't do it with something so serious.

He sighed and patted my arm, "From now on, let's stay clear of doorways, shall we?"

I couldn't get mad at the people who trampled me to the point my Guardian thought I was dead and had to fight to save me; it was a fight for their own lives. I just so happened to be standing at the end of the tunnel blocking the exit of that very fight.

"Well, I'm going to go make my rounds now."

In the very bottom of my heart, I didn't want to be alone. There was a lot of guilt trying to swallow me whole, but at the same time, I wanted him to walk around and find out every little bit of information he could find on everyone and tell me.

So I nodded.

"I suggest you get some sleep son."

I used to get irate just from him calling me one little word that held such depth and meaning. I felt like if I responded any other way it would be disrespectful to my father's memory. It really, really wasn't.

"_Alright_." And in the fashion of Kakashi, I tacked on a side joke to get rid of the serious air, "_Can you get the nurse_? _I want to get doped up_."

My parents weren't really as crazy as I thought for picking Kakashi as my Godfather.

* * *

He never came.

Sasuke never came to the hospital the entire time I was in there and I was pissed at the fact.

I put that feeling aside when my release from the hospital came and a welcome home party came along with it. According to Kakashi, I wasn't allowed to say the real story, and he gave me a bullshit one to continuously feed. Something about being at the airport at the wrong time, something involving my own parent's case, and let them fill in the blanks on their own.

I was to say _nothing_ about Sasuke.

There comes a time in your life when you get tired of asking questions and learn to go with the flow.

If Sasuke was supposed to stay dead to everyone around us I could, for once in my life, keep my mouth shut.

The party was long.

Just like the last time I saw Sakura, she was crying when I first wobbled my way into my house on my crutches. Hinata looked ready to burst, and Ino was in the process of breaking Shikamaru's hand. Kiba was too busy cracking jokes to give a damn and I couldn't be more thankful. Thankful that someone was there to lighten the mood.

A few people were talking about the passing of Gramps, and I politely tried to ignore them to the best of my ability. Visiting his grave site before coming home was hard enough but I just couldn't talk about it yet. I needed a breath a fresh air before I jumped down into my shitty little ditch again.

The best part of the night was the cake fight.

Despite adult protest, it flew. It was all Kiba's fault really. He took my piece and shoved it in my face, and I took his and tossed it. It just so happened to land in Gaara's face. Temari sought retribution.

Now my dining room looks like a bakery exploded.

"Alright…" I could hear Kakashi call through his laughter, "Let's call it an evening, shall we? Tomorrow we'll get back together."

They planned a big outing to go some over priced restaurant while they still had everyone in town. Just one last 'hurrah' I guess.

Once people finally cleared my house, I looked over at Kakashi after leaning over on my crutches, "Not that it's a shocker, but you have cake in your hair."

He gave me one of his I-don't-care shrugs, "I'll use the second shower."

Kakashi always had clothes left here and there at my house for stupid reasons, and I never once forced him to take them home. A part of me wanted to know if the police removed _all_ of my property while going with their whole grand scheme, but a part of me realized that was a dumb question.

"They put what they took back where it belongs?" I don't know how I managed to get icing where I got it, but apparently it went down my shirt.

"I did. When you were at the hospital. What they did take for 'evidence' is right where you left it. I even left you a present in your closet."

I snorted, immediately concocting images of porn magazines or seven sets of replacement crutches, or an old man's cane. "I can't wait."

If he really liked me, he left me candy.

I was insanely thankful that my house was on one level and hobbled my way through it to get to my own room. I wanted to tell Kakashi we should pack our bags and go to the house by the river because now more than ever we deserved a vacation.

Instead I made my way into my bedroom and ignored the door to Sasuke's room. A part of me was pissed to the point I could scream and I just ignored the other part. I didn't know where he was or what he was doing or if he was even coming back.

I should have known better.

I almost fell over when I opened my closet and found Sasuke sitting in it.

"What in the shit are you doing?" I couldn't help snapping. Really, I almost had a heart attack.

It was nicer than our last meeting, I had to admit. I wasn't crying and having a panic attack thinking he had been dead. Instead I had been pissed off thinking he purposefully abandoned me.

But he stood swiftly and simply walked out of the closet at his leisure leaving me turning to follow after him.

"I had to hide." Duh, hide at your other home. "Everyone is still supposed to think I'm dead."

I watched him shut my bedroom door and I could have sworn at that same time I heard Kakashi cackle from off in the distance.

When he turned away from the door and back to me, I lost it and I cracked. Every little annoyance and worry came spilling out of my mouth in an instant, "Damn you! I thought you were hurt and everyone was lying to me. I thought you might actually have been dead! I woke up in the hospital thinking you were dead…AGAIN! Then I waited and waited for you to show up or call or send smoke signals. Something – anything. Then I thought you just hated me after all of that! I thought you were so fed up you couldn't stand to see me. I haven't been able to decide if I felt depressed or pissed and that's after feeling guilty about what happened to everyone."

I was pretty close to stamping my foot before I realized it was _still_ broken and it would still hurt, so I settled for throwing down my crutches.

Like that was any better.

I had to grab a hold of my closet door so I wouldn't topple over and it was at that moment I realized Sasuke hadn't looked at me yet. Not in the eyes at least, and I was getting more ticked off by the second.

"I should have hit you with the crutch."

Hard, over the head, and I should have made sure to draw blood.

"How do you feel?"

Of all the questions, "Did you not hear me? I'm pretty pissed."

I was getting annoyed just by the distance between us, annoyed that he refused to move from the other side of the room. I could kill him myself if it wouldn't hurt so damn much to move.

"Physically."

Whoops. So I feel a little dumb, but I play it off. "It's me, Sasuke. I'm fine."

"It's you Naruto, I know damn well you're not fine."

Ah, touché.

"I'm healing!" I wanted to snap and yell at him and kick him the hell out, but there was a small part of my brain that was overly excited and happy to see him. That small part of my brain was kicking my ass.

"I wanted to come to the hospital…"

"Then why in the fuck didn't you? Don't feed me that bullshit about having to 'stay dead' either, I know you! You always do whatever you want without a care."

There was a tense moment where I thought my head was just going to straight pop, but he stopped it just before that moment of peak insanity.

"…I didn't want to see you like that."

Have you ever heard the sound of tires screeching when someone slams on the brakes? It sounds like that in my head right now. My anger was on a b-line and Sasuke stomped on the brakes for me.

"I put you there and I couldn't see you like that."

Here I was feeling guilty, feeling like something was tearing through my chest and ripping its way to my stomach, and Sasuke was there with me. Sasuke was beyond that.

"Sasuke…I…"

I obviously have brain lock. Sasuke in no way, shape or form has ever expressed himself to me like he's done recently. In a way it scares the shit out of me because it felt like I was going to lose him the way I know him. The other part of me was excited, because I felt like this was the only way Sasuke thought he was going to get me.

I should start calling him an idiot.

"I'm fine…" I purposely knocked my fist against my head a few times to receive a glare aimed at my fist, "Promise."

"Your leg…"

"…is healing."

It was getting to the point I wanted to scream again. I was tired of the tense air. I couldn't take it. This kid fed on fucking guilt and it was starting to drive me absolutely nuts.  
I wanted him next to me not across the room from me.

But we stood like that for a little while. I clung to my closet door and he glared at the floor like the carpet was at fault. But I was just tired of it.

"Bastard…"

I know hopping over to him I looked like a fucking idiot, but I really couldn't care less at that moment. Reaching him confirmed that. When I grabbed his arms for balance and support it felt like everything just fell into place. All the pressure that was on my shoulders disappeared and my chest felt like it was whole again. Every single worry didn't matter right now.

It always pissed me off how when he came around me everything seemed alright again - even if I couldn't stand him at that moment. Right here and right now I couldn't be more thankful for that feeling.

"You're such an idiot."

Of all things to say to kill the moment, he knows how to pin point that shit and strike it down with fury.

"I told you to go. Stubborn moron."

I couldn't help but laugh a little. I can't pin point exactly why, but I just laughed. It wasn't outright and meant to be in his face, but it just slipped out. He didn't even get mad.

"I didn't want to leave…you."

Admitting this to my long time best friend felt awkward simply because I know what those words held. It wasn't something about not wanting to leave my best friend behind, it was far more than that. All these feelings that I've been trying to hide I needed to get out. He easily confessed. HIM! Sasuke could do it and I was terrified.

Totally fucking backwards.

"I didn't want to leave you and you made me promise to do just that. I really hate you for that."

When I watched that smirk form on Sasuke's face, it felt like someone was tickling my stomach from the inside. Sane people would call it butterflies. I was just technically happy to see him acting like his cocky, uptight self.

I think that's what drove me to tell him.

It was the Sasuke I knew and grew up with. The bastard I couldn't stand and the guy I couldn't live without. With one tiny little facial expression I had him back.

"I need to tell you something."

Grand scheme, right? As if it wasn't obvious beforehand with my stalling.

"I know, so say it."

Moments like these I really hate him. Then again I don't exactly expect him to gush and act all oblivious. I'd probably be terrified if he did do something like that. But! But that doesn't mean I hate that whole 'I-know-everything' thing he has going on.

"You're a bastard, that's what!"

Childish, right? He's used to it. That's why he smacked me upside the head instead of letting me pull away to make my hopping departure.

So instead of doing the 'Uchiha' thing and getting straight to the point, I did the Uzumaki thing and went around that bush till we were both annoyed.

"It drives me nuts how I can't stand being without you, you know that? But it has to be a good thing somewhere that when we were split up I felt like I fell apart from the inside. How in the hell, of all people, are you the one who keeps me…me? You hold me together and of all people it's you. A stuck up, emotional, anti-social bastard and the happy, hyper all-too-social kid. How are we opposite in everything? I guess that's why I love you."

See? I have to say everything to say one thing.

"Not as hard as you thought, was it?"

I was actually happy to feel his fingers rake through my hair, "I didn't explode. Look at that."

When he kissed me, this time it wasn't shocking to the point I couldn't register it. The whole time I thought he abandoned me, all I tired to do was remember our kiss. I wanted to hit someone just knowing I couldn't remember.

Feeling his lips against mine and just knowing that I was indeed eager to push back was both awkward and rewarding. Crossing the line from best friends to boyfriends still ate at my mind, but I realized it was all worth it.

He proved that with the lengths he went to just to protect me.

I admit I ruined the kiss, but it's not like I'm prefect. It is _me_. And it's not like my one leg has the strength of two. When it went out, we both went down.

We didn't bother moving from the floor. I don't know if it was sheer laziness or pure comfort, but either way I was content with where I was at. Just the two of us lying side by side on my carpet. He kept barely playing with my hair, but I couldn't blame him. If I had his hair I'd be jealous of mine too.

I ranted about how mad I was at him even though I really wasn't anymore. I recalled every experience from waking up that fateful morning and finding him gone, all the way to finding him in my closet.

He told me everything that happened with Itachi. Everything. Every scary little detail. Despite Itachi being in jail and facing countless years in a penitentiary of maximum security, Sasuke was the one to suggest it.

"We should still move."

I was actually in agreement. Yeah, I know. I have a life here, a good life too. I have loving friends, a crazy Godfather and some psycho people who just so happen to check in on me from time to time. I have a career, a college and a home. I have everything.

It's all absolutely meaningless without Sasuke.

"Yeah…"

I felt is forehead rub against mine when he turned to face me, no doubt a little shocked, "You realize what that entails."

I try to shrug it off, "I can visit."

"You understand though. Why?"

I try not to laugh at his monotone and realized Sasuke was coming too and acting normal instead of all weird like he has feelings or something. "Well, you know…that whole you being dead thing could pose an issue. Then again I can say you're my guardian ghost. You come with a scowl and ghostly complexion…I don't have to do anything, you fit the role."  
Leave it to me to make jokes during a serious moment, but I needed the mood to lighten up.

Most likely still in shock from either the shooting or my willingness to throw my life away for him, he reverted back to the weird Sasuke; saying things that made my heart flutter and wonder who spiked his drink.

"If anything were to happen to you again…" When he sighed against my forehead I was tempted to pinch him to make him snap out of it. I wanted him to go back to being indifferent about every little thing including our lives.

"Nothing's going to happen Sasuke. I hear penitentiary's now have really good security…I doubt that's a silly rumor."

"You really don't understand how I felt." Contrary to popular belief, my up-chuck reflex can argue that, "I'm not going to put you in that type of situation again. I'll be the one to protect you next time."

It's his whole pride thing, but that doesn't mean I wasn't flattered. The fact that Sasuke was involving me in his life was a giant step when before it felt like I was always tugging him along. It was an even bigger deal he was being protective over me.

But this was it. This was the beginning of my and Sasuke's new life at this very moment. Laying on my bedroom floor talking about where we were going to move, how we were going to go about it, and just how quickly we could get the hell out of dodge. We were figuring out how to transfer my college credits, or if they would even transfer. We tried to think of a college I could go to and think of places we could go to work with the skills we had. We talked about excuses to use for my friends for my sudden move, but I decided simply on trauma which partially made me laugh. We always managed to come back to where we would live – always. No matter how much I talked about a visiting schedule, or when Kakashi was allowed to come and stay, how I was going to handle breaking the news, or if we wanted a house or apartment; it always came back to _where_.

But, no matter where, how or why; it didn't matter.

All that mattered was that I was with Sasuke.

How amazing it became to wake up with Sasuke every day. Alive and walking next to me.

Just him and I.

* * *

Author's Notes: The end. I know it's a little vague, but I didn't think it needed more than it ended with.  
Last post of 09'. So I wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy New year and Happy (insert holiday you celebrate).  
With love,  
Nevi


End file.
